Brumfield
member
Registered: 12/23/07
Posts: 255
Loc: Expat from New Orleans, now in...

Quote:

Dental pick? Substitutes for floss and is always handy after a snack. OK, That's weird. So what?

Naw, that's not weird, I carry plastic toothpicks with a built in strip of floss in my shirt pocket. When I run out of them I make toothpicks from twigs. With a twig you can chew the end to a brush-like texture and polish your teeth as you walk along.

Now, I suppose weird is in the eye of the beholder... it's another story when I get my pack checked by police (very often) on the roads of Mexico. The police are not bothered by my 18 inch machete (a common tool) hanging in full view on my pack, nor the 6 inch double edged stinger knife in a mini scabbard on my pack strap, or my 8 inch blade dive knife strapped to the inside of my calf if they find it (everybody carries one or two knives here), but they are always very curious about my medical kit that includes a surgeon's scalpel, Vicryl Rapide Suture thread, circle cutting edge suture needles, syringes and vials of procaine.

I've only used the kit three times, once on a careless village child that suffered a serious bamboo slice, once on an old fellow's machete wound, and once on the nosy cop that didn't heed my warning that the surgeon's scalpel was very, very sharp, and ran his thumb down the blade anyway. With the Vicryl Rapide Suture thread I don't have to go back to remove the stitches later, as they just fall out after a week or so. I leave prophylactic antibiotics with them to treat the sutured area. We bring what we need, don't we. Brum <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

Dental pick? Substitutes for floss and is always handy after a snack. OK, That's weird. So what?

Naw, that's not weird, I carry plastic toothpicks with a built in strip of floss in my shirt pocket. When I run out of them I make toothpicks from twigs. With a twig you can chew the end to a brush-like texture and polish your teeth as you walk along.

Now, I suppose weird is in the eye of the beholder... it's another story when I get my pack checked by police (very often) on the roads of Mexico. The police are not bothered by my 18 inch machete (a common tool) hanging in full view on my pack, nor the 6 inch double edged stinger knife in a mini scabbard on my pack strap, or my 8 inch blade dive knife strapped to the inside of my calf if they find it (everybody carries one or two knives here), but they are always very curious about my medical kit that includes a surgeon's scalpel, Vicryl Rapide Suture thread, circle cutting edge suture needles, syringes and vials of procaine.

I've only used the kit three times, once on a careless village child that suffered a serious bamboo slice, once on an old fellow's machete wound, and once on the nosy cop that didn't heed my warning that the surgeon's scalpel was very, very sharp, and ran his thumb down the blade anyway. With the Vicryl Rapide Suture thread I don't have to go back to remove the stitches later, as they just fall out after a week or so. I leave prophylactic antibiotics with them to treat the sutured area. We bring what we need, don't we. Brum <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

That's not weird at all. My father carries machete and stinger knife with him too, and I like the dental pick idea. I will bring them along the next time we go. We are very organized though and we usually don't have problems keeping track of the stuff we brought with us.